Tuesday, 5 August 2014

New Kid on the Block

I spent a day on Sunday with a lad by the name of Tai-Dachi, I have been aware of him for some time now, he has taught himself to make nylon whips using a combination of the Ron Edwards books and a DVD tutorial I sell. I think as well he has glanced at the on line tutorial I have on this blog a time or two also.

He lives quite local to me and I heard tell of him selling whips at the local munch, then just by chance got to see one he had made, I was pleased to see it and apart from a few and I do mean only a very few beginner mistakes it was very good, well weighted, good taper and a decent overlay as well, good string drops etc etc

When I heard the price he had charged I was really pleased, £30.00 for a 3 foot snake whip, the whip I saw was worth £30.00 and more but I loved his attitude, he has a genuine passion to learn the craft and until such times as he is good enough, he is happy to sell them to friends at cost and the price of a few beers.

There are too many out there making one or two whips and then starting a web site, I guess they think they are good enough but I have never seen one that was good enough, you really do need to make a few to get your patterns right and get that all important consistency, some never achieve it and along the way sell much crap for too much money cutting every corner there is to be cut without the experience to do so.

Hearing about TD was like a breath of fresh air and I invited him to come and spend a day with me in the hope it would refine his work a little and move him along in his whip making journey. He chose to build a 3 foot 12 plait snake whip which is pictured above, he did the bulk of it and I only really jumped in to show him a few tricks here and there, we finished it with a leather Indian Tan Latigo fall and I hope he remembers how, we worked on a nice single colour herringbone knot.

I enjoyed my day and found TD to be all I had heard he was, he like me believes in using quality cord rather than Chinese imported cord and he feels strongly he won't be opening a web site till he achieves consistency, sat long last a whip maker in the UK starting a business the right way, an honest way, there have been many lies regards who has stood next to me and learnt from me, TD is the first and only one to do so, anyone else that tells you they have or intimates they have is telling porkies.